Help with Setting Up UTM Parameters for Lead Source Tracking in HubSpot

[KubaNowakowski]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice on using UTMs to accurately track the sources of our leads in HubSpot. Currently, we run simple campaigns through newsletters, cold email, LinkedIn, Google Ads, and AdRoll. I'm trying to find a way to consistently track these sources without the HubSpot Marketing Professional subscription.

I've been testing UTMs using Google’s Campaign URL Builder, but I’ve run into issues where the "Source" parameter (e.g., utm_source=paid_social or utm_source=linkedin) appears as "Other campaigns" in HubSpot (examples below) The only one I managed to track sucessfully was from Email Marketing (example 3). Ideally, I'd like HubSpot to correctly attribute these leads based on the source, so we can easily differentiate LinkedIn, Google Ads, and other channels.

Could anyone provide guidance or share best practices on:

1. The correct way to structure UTM parameters for various channels (email, social media, Google Ads, etc.) so that HubSpot recognizes them accurately.
2. Tips on simplifying the UTM creation process for my team to ensure consistency.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @KubaNowakowski,

This page explains how traffic is categorized in HubSpot 🙂 https://knowledge.hubspot.com/reports/understand-hubspots-traffic-sources-in-the-traffic-analytics-t...

Best regards

[MusicMarketer78]

@EWu18, I'd assume you would need to create new properties for source and then utilize a workflow to automatically map the original source information over to your new properties. From there, you could tell HubSpot that if utm_source = X, to set your custom source property to the associated value. Seems like a lot of work and would be so much easier if we could just customize the original source property by UTM information.   

[herodotuseduc]

im on the startee plan. do i have to edit the utm parameters every time i create a Facebook, linkedin or google campaign? dont they auto generated the necessary default utm values  for hubspot?

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @KubaNowakowski,

This page explains how traffic is categorized in HubSpot 🙂 https://knowledge.hubspot.com/reports/understand-hubspots-traffic-sources-in-the-traffic-analytics-t...

Best regards

[KubaNowakowski]

Hi @karstenkoehler always a pleasure!

I used the wording provided here but the source still shows up as Other Campaigns. Any idea why? 

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

@KubaNowakowski HubSpot expects "linkedin" in the utm medium, not source.

[KubaNowakowski]

got it! thanks man, works like a charm

[EWu18]

Hi @KubaNowakowski  - did you figure it out a way (workflow) for HubSpot to track lead/contact with the UTM? In your example above, we want HubSpot to show "source" = LinkedIn, as you had in the UTM in the URL. Thanks so much for your help!

Elaine